Mideast Peace Process Cannot Go Forward

Published: March 5, 1996

To the Editor:

While I have no quarrel with Andy Mager's assertion (letter, March 3) that a Palestinian state is a requirement for peace in the Middle East, I cannot agree with his use of the word "terrorism" to describe both Israel's assassination of the Palestinian bomb maker Yahya Ayyash and the detonation of bombs on Israeli buses.

Terrorism is a word devalued through promiscuous use. I offer the following definition that captures what makes it so loathsome: violence targeted at noncombatants and designed to maximize media attention.

Since the bombs in Israel were intended for bus passengers, while the bomb in Mr. Ayyash's telephone was aimed at a single person who specialized in the manufacture of similar bombs, Mr. Mager's claim that the latter act is also terrorism is specious.